During January to June every odd year, Texas’ legislative branch convenes at the state capitol for a six-month sprint of lawmaking. It is here that decisions affecting millions of Texans are made.
The personalities and the ideologies run the gamut, from small-government conservatives to progressives. With Texas, for the moment, being a solidly Republican state, of the 150 members of the Texas House of Representatives, 88 are Republicans and 62 are Democrats.
Among the legislators who walk the halls of the Capitol is Representative Briscoe Cain, a self-described constitutional conservative, from House District 128.
On his website, under the banner of “Faith. Family. Freedom.” Cain says to his supporters, “I went to Austin to stand up for you and to serve your values in the Capitol. I did that, and I’m proud to have been named the most conservative legislator. For me it was easy – it was about keeping my word to you.”
For those from the outside looking in, Cain is often described as a Ron Paul-type, willing to buck the establishment of his own party on principle, if he perceives them as growing the size and scope of government or infringing on the freedoms of Texans. It is the principle that matters most, says Cain.
On the personal side, Cain is the father of five boys, all homeschooled. His wife, Bergundi, is also politically engaged as the vice president of finance for the Texas Federation of Republican Women and is actively involved in the Legislative Ladies Club. It is a family affair for the Cain’s and that was by choice.
“We’ve been intentional about our time in Austin,” Cain says. “I’ve seen what this position can do to people’s lives. It was a decision of whether I was even going to run for office, that we were going to keep the family together,.”
Cain, who has his bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston-Downtown and a doctorate from South Texas College of Law, is 40 years old. He has served in the Texas House of Representatives since 2017, including becoming a Committee Chairman (House Agriculture & Livestock Committee) in 2023, only to lose that position this legislative session.
“There’s a lot of things that we’ve been trying to do for a long time,” he says. “The passage of educational savings accounts, universal school choice is a great thing for Texas.”
Cain attended Governor Abbott’s bill signing ceremony on May 3, which was the final action of the legislative process to create the largest initial school choice program in the country. The program, as passed, allocates $1 billion in state funds for the program. Participating families will receive up to $10,000 per year per student.
All families with students in Texas can apply for the funding but the initial awards will be prioritized to students with disabilities and low-income families. The funds can be used by those families for school tuition and other educational expenses.
And while Cain acknowledges that there was a lot of opposition, he argues that some of the opposition is not grounded in the reality of the program.
“There are plenty of people saying that the program somehow defunds public schools,” he says. Cain points out that the funding for the program is from an entirely different source than what funds public schools in Texas.
Governor Abbott had something to say about these arguments as well. “School choice will not defund our public schools, including in rural communities. Education Savings Accounts will be funded by state revenue in a separate pot. They won’t take money from Texas public schools,” said Abbott in a Facebook post on March 9.
However, Cain suggested that a school choice program that resulted in families and revenue leaving failing schools might not be a bad thing.
“If bad schools closed, families would have the opportunity to send their children to a school that is having success and better meets their needs,” he says. “That should be a reality.”
While school choice was a major victory for Cain, he thinks that the current legislature is falling short on a broad range of other priorities.
“There are so many other things that the Republican Party and the grassroots want to see done,” he says.
One of the examples of this that Cain gives is the issue of taxpayer-funded lobbying. For years, there has been a push to ban the use of taxpayer funds to pay for lobbyists at the Capitol but it has not passed.
“Again, it has come over from the Senate long, long ago. Months ago. Yet, the House version has stalled,” he says. “Chairman King has said he has no plans of setting or hearing the bill.”
While Cain says “it is a complex question where we start to point the finger” for why many of these priorities have stalled, he posted to X about it on April 26.
“I don’t take it personally when my bills are killed. It comes with the territory. But the bills stalled in the State Affairs Committee represent the people’s will. These measures are backed by conservative grassroots and flagged by TexasGOP as legislative priorities. The message is unmistakable,” he said on X.
Earlier in the session, one of his bills, House Bill 274, that would establish a District of Austin, similar to state capitol districts in Mississippi and the capitol district governed by the legislative branch in Washington, D.C., did get a vote in House State Affairs. The final vote was 11-0 against his bill, including no votes in favor from his Republican Caucus colleagues.
Another bill that has been somewhat controversial, which did pass the House State Affairs Committee and full House of Representatives, House Bill 366 by Rep. Dade Phelan, referred to as the “Meme Bill” gives Cain some concerns about its implications for free speech.
“When we’re dealing with political speech, we want to avoid laws that will have the effect of chilling speech,” Cain says.
According to Cain, the bill, if passed by the Senate and signed by the Governor, would have to face legal scrutiny in the courts and if the courts found it to have the effect he is concerned about, it would probably be struck down.
Whether it is taxpayer-funded lobbying or memes or any other issue, Cain says that no matter what the subject is people bring up their rising property tax bills.
“It is the local governments that are doing this,” he says. “You have to get involved in local elections.”
Last session, the Texas Legislature passed one of, if not the largest property tax reductions in the history of the country, using surplus state revenues to buy down school property taxes and increase the homestead exemption. However, to Cain and others, the original significant relief people had on their tax bills went away by the second year.
While Cain advocates for a multi-faceted approach to rising property tax bills, Cain insists that the legislature must “restrain spending at the local level.”